IF you have been reading the newspapers or watching the TV news recently you’ll have had flashbacks to the 1980s.

What we have seen from the new Tory government takes us straight back to the era of Margaret Thatcher.

Firstly, we listened to Chancellor George Osborne’s budget which hammered workers in low paid jobs.

They plan to cut tax credits, introduced by Labour, that hard working families rely on to make ends meets.

This will hit women and children hardest.

Then David Cameron was forced into a humiliating climbdown in the face of united opposition to his attempt to reverse the ban on fox hunting in England.

And just last week we saw the Tories playing to the very worst of their nature when they published new legislation that aims solely to undermine and weaken the role of trade unions.

It is ideologically driven, unnecessary and divisive.

The new Trade Union Bill will let employers bring in agency workers to fill the jobs of striking staff, and restrict the right of workers to protest during industrial disputes.

Most significantly it will clampdown on the rights of workers to strike by, for example. requiring a 50% turnout in all strike ballots.

Let us put that in perspective.

If you applied these same restrictions to electing MPs then over half of the Tories in the cabinet would not have been elected in May, including Iain Duncan Smith.

Although many people might see that as a good thing.

Without a doubt, this is the most significant attack on the rights of working people in a generation.

I share the view of Grahame Smith, the General Secretary of the STUC, when he called the Tories’ plans “vindictive, unfair and unnecessary.”

I have already written to the STUC to give my backing to their campaign against these proposals.

The Tories attack on trade unions is based on the myth that trade unions are a bad thing, that they cause damage to society. The opposite is the case.

It benefits not only workers and employers but wider society when trade unions are able to represent their members in a constructive and effective way.

In any event, workers do not take strike action lightly and the vast majority of the work of trade unions is in partnership with employers.

There are currently 6.5 million workers who are members of trade unions in the UK, and nearly one third of Scottish workers belong to a trade union.

For over a century, trade unions have led the fight against injustice.

They have stood up for the rights of individual workers and pushed for progressive changes across society and in the workplace.

If it had not been for trade unions we would not have had laws securing equal pay between men and women, paid holidays, protection for workers from injury and death at work, the national minimum wage, paid maternity leave, and an end to child labour.

These are all rights which we take for granted and are the direct result of many years of campaigning by trade unions.

Trade unions have also played key roles on other progressives issues down the years, for example in support of the NHS and in opposition to apartheid.

I am proud to have been a trade union member all of my working life.

I am currently a member of both the GMB and Community unions.

As council leader I have put my trade union values into practice.

I have led the way in promoting the living wage across Glasgow and throughout local government; I have incorporated the living wage, and opposition to union blacklisting and exploitative zero-hours contracts into our procurement policy; and I have maintained an unwavering commitment to national collective bargaining.

My administration funds the biggest and most successful apprenticeship and job-creation programme in the UK, under the banner of our £50 million Glasgow Guarantee.

I have successfully upheld a policy opposing compulsory redundancies for council staff, despite disproportionate and year-on-year cuts to Glasgow's budget by the Scottish Government.

If we are to tackle low pay, job insecurity, workplace inequality, skills shortages, and reduce poverty then this can only be done by negotiation and compromise between trade unions and employers.

The Tory plans un-necessarily upset positive industrial relations in this country and are ideologically driven. Their nasty side is never far from the surface.